ulla connor
"Three approaches concerning tranfer have dominated: contrastive analysis; error analysis; and its later development, an analysis of the transitional system called 'interlanguage'."
"Non-Anglo-American English as in international language encourages tolerance for nonnative norms of English."
"English readers expect and require landmarks of coherence and unity as they read. The writer needs to provide transitional statements. In Japanese, on the other hand, trasnsitions may be lacking. The reader is expected to piece sections together to make a coherent text."
"In addition to emphasizing the personal growth and integration inherent in such self-evaluation, social constructionist theory in L1 composition has allied itself with an anti-authoritarian ideology."
"...critical pedagogy...has not been embraced by ESL teachers and researchers..."
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
The role of repetition in Arabic argumentative discourse
adnan j.r. al-jubouri
"the different types of formal devices that Arabic employs for expressing repetition and achieving rhetorical effect."
"Repetition in Arabic discourse...is realized at several levels...the morphological level, the word level, and the 'chunk' level."
"k-t-b has to do with writing"
"Notice that the repetition of a morphological pattern creates repetition on the phonological level if said aloud, which intensifies the effect of repetition."
"English discourse rules, codified in rhetoric textbooks under 'variety in word choice', encourage writers to avoid repetition of this sort. The converse is true in Arabic."
"They occur in English in a number of frozen, or semi-frozen idiomatic expressions, particularly in legal English where they are known as 'doublets'.
"The consttuents in the word strings of this group are antonyms or near-antonyms. This is an old rhetorical device in Arabic and has been used for centuries in poetry as well as in prose."
"When reiterated through an argument they tend to create an immediate emotional impact."
"Parallelism is a rhetorical as well as text-building device."
"The tendency towards forceful assertion also explains what, in the eye of a Western recipient, appears to be a florid and verbose style of argumentative discourse. Brevity will simply fail to convey the required effect."
"the different types of formal devices that Arabic employs for expressing repetition and achieving rhetorical effect."
"Repetition in Arabic discourse...is realized at several levels...the morphological level, the word level, and the 'chunk' level."
"k-t-b has to do with writing"
"Notice that the repetition of a morphological pattern creates repetition on the phonological level if said aloud, which intensifies the effect of repetition."
"English discourse rules, codified in rhetoric textbooks under 'variety in word choice', encourage writers to avoid repetition of this sort. The converse is true in Arabic."
"They occur in English in a number of frozen, or semi-frozen idiomatic expressions, particularly in legal English where they are known as 'doublets'.
"The consttuents in the word strings of this group are antonyms or near-antonyms. This is an old rhetorical device in Arabic and has been used for centuries in poetry as well as in prose."
"When reiterated through an argument they tend to create an immediate emotional impact."
"Parallelism is a rhetorical as well as text-building device."
"The tendency towards forceful assertion also explains what, in the eye of a Western recipient, appears to be a florid and verbose style of argumentative discourse. Brevity will simply fail to convey the required effect."
"Expository paragraph structure in Slavic and Romance languages"
paul neubauer and elizabeth riddle
Kaplan claimed that English is more linear and contains fewer digressions than Slavic or Romance texts.
This study found that "the Romance and Slavic paragraphs in our sample exhibited no more digression than the English paragraphs. Furthermore, in none of the cases does this data support a claim that digressiveness is typical of expository prose paragraphs in that language."
Kaplan's doodles should not be repeated by other researchers as "gospel."
Kaplan claimed that English is more linear and contains fewer digressions than Slavic or Romance texts.
This study found that "the Romance and Slavic paragraphs in our sample exhibited no more digression than the English paragraphs. Furthermore, in none of the cases does this data support a claim that digressiveness is typical of expository prose paragraphs in that language."
Kaplan's doodles should not be repeated by other researchers as "gospel."
linguistic rituals for thanking in japanese: balancing obligations
jun ohashi
"The data of this investigation are naturally ocurring telephone conversations which took place in the Japanese enf-of-year gift-giving seaosn, seibo."
"This study reveals that conversational participants cooperate to achieve a mutual pragmatic goal of 'debt-credit equilibrium'."
"o-rei does not free the debtor form debt."
"the mutual and reciprocal aspects need to be taken into account."
"The norm of reciprocity--the social obligation to reciprocate benefits to one another--is claimed to be universal (Goulder, 1960)..."
"THe social goal of reciprocity is not debtless or creditless state in social relationship, but the continuation of the relationship."
rei can mean politness/social hierarchy or a bow
"'the giver and the thanker collabortate in the development of a successful thanking episode' (Eisenstein and Bodman, 1993: 74)"
"were also told that any conversations they had reservations about presenting to the researcher should be erased....The transcripts ...are simplified and modified for the purpose of this study."
"A(11) can be interpreted as a topic change to end an o-rei. This exmaple is unique because the beneficiary changed the topic. In other xamples it was always the benefactor who changed the topic."
"benefactive verbs emphasises imbalance and 'ie ie' denigrates it."
"...'thanking' and 'apologizing' are hardly distinguishable in Japanese; they are closely related in the indebtedness the speaker feels towards the interlocutor."
speakers repeat "'No, not at all'."
"It is often the case that doomo is used alone, that is, the later parts are unsaid. The frequent se of doomo supports the view that Japanese native speakers may not be conscious of distinguishing the speech act of thanking and apology in particular contexts where the speaker needs to express indebtedness."
"Imbalance is overtly acknowledged by beneficiary and the imbalance is dneied by benefactor."
"Such a sudden topic change, which is initiated by the benefactor, is observed frequently in the data."
"Working on the debt-credit equilibrium emerged clearly as a common practice outside a family circle."
'The more intimate the interlocutors were, the more a 'complimenting-gladness' pair tended to emerge. This is clearly a norm for intimate situations."
"Both ends of the continuum of social distance tend to have predictable sequences; the minimum end tends to be complimenting-gladness', while the maximum end tends to be 'thanking, apology, debt-sensitive speech formula, and/or a benefactive verb-denial."
"Working on debt-credit equilibrium is observed as a default except for conversations between family members."
"Overlaps:
When conversationsl participants work together on debt-crdit equilibrium, overlapping speech frequently ocurred. In otehr words, as soon as the beneficiary indicates his/her pragmatic intention of compensating debt, even partially with thanking apology, debt-sensitive formulae or a benefactive verb, the benefactor counteracts with a 'dneial'. A 'denial' serves the pragmatic function of de-burdening the beneficiary, thus, it often overlaps, or at least is latched with the beneficiary's attempt to work on o-rei. This conversational overlap or harmony is also evidence that mutual work on the debt-credit equilibrium is in operation. If I use the notion of face, as a motivational drive, derived from Goffman (1967:5): "the positive value a person effetively claims for himself by the line others assume he has taken during a particular contact", the state of being in debt without an acknowldgment is dishonorable, and for the benefactor, claiming that s/he is a creditor is seen as arrogant and a social disgrace. 'Dnial', as an expected follow up of beneficiary's acknowledgement of benefit/debt, may in fact care for both beneficiary's and benefactor's face."
"This supports Apte's description of thanking (verbalization of gratitude) in Marathi and Hindi, that is "verbalization of gratitude indicates a distant relationship" (Apte, 1974:75), and thus it should be avoided among family members."
"The data of this investigation are naturally ocurring telephone conversations which took place in the Japanese enf-of-year gift-giving seaosn, seibo."
"This study reveals that conversational participants cooperate to achieve a mutual pragmatic goal of 'debt-credit equilibrium'."
"o-rei does not free the debtor form debt."
"the mutual and reciprocal aspects need to be taken into account."
"The norm of reciprocity--the social obligation to reciprocate benefits to one another--is claimed to be universal (Goulder, 1960)..."
"THe social goal of reciprocity is not debtless or creditless state in social relationship, but the continuation of the relationship."
rei can mean politness/social hierarchy or a bow
"'the giver and the thanker collabortate in the development of a successful thanking episode' (Eisenstein and Bodman, 1993: 74)"
"were also told that any conversations they had reservations about presenting to the researcher should be erased....The transcripts ...are simplified and modified for the purpose of this study."
"A(11) can be interpreted as a topic change to end an o-rei. This exmaple is unique because the beneficiary changed the topic. In other xamples it was always the benefactor who changed the topic."
"benefactive verbs emphasises imbalance and 'ie ie' denigrates it."
"...'thanking' and 'apologizing' are hardly distinguishable in Japanese; they are closely related in the indebtedness the speaker feels towards the interlocutor."
speakers repeat "'No, not at all'."
"It is often the case that doomo is used alone, that is, the later parts are unsaid. The frequent se of doomo supports the view that Japanese native speakers may not be conscious of distinguishing the speech act of thanking and apology in particular contexts where the speaker needs to express indebtedness."
"Imbalance is overtly acknowledged by beneficiary and the imbalance is dneied by benefactor."
"Such a sudden topic change, which is initiated by the benefactor, is observed frequently in the data."
"Working on the debt-credit equilibrium emerged clearly as a common practice outside a family circle."
'The more intimate the interlocutors were, the more a 'complimenting-gladness' pair tended to emerge. This is clearly a norm for intimate situations."
"Both ends of the continuum of social distance tend to have predictable sequences; the minimum end tends to be complimenting-gladness', while the maximum end tends to be 'thanking, apology, debt-sensitive speech formula, and/or a benefactive verb-denial."
"Working on debt-credit equilibrium is observed as a default except for conversations between family members."
"Overlaps:
When conversationsl participants work together on debt-crdit equilibrium, overlapping speech frequently ocurred. In otehr words, as soon as the beneficiary indicates his/her pragmatic intention of compensating debt, even partially with thanking apology, debt-sensitive formulae or a benefactive verb, the benefactor counteracts with a 'dneial'. A 'denial' serves the pragmatic function of de-burdening the beneficiary, thus, it often overlaps, or at least is latched with the beneficiary's attempt to work on o-rei. This conversational overlap or harmony is also evidence that mutual work on the debt-credit equilibrium is in operation. If I use the notion of face, as a motivational drive, derived from Goffman (1967:5): "the positive value a person effetively claims for himself by the line others assume he has taken during a particular contact", the state of being in debt without an acknowldgment is dishonorable, and for the benefactor, claiming that s/he is a creditor is seen as arrogant and a social disgrace. 'Dnial', as an expected follow up of beneficiary's acknowledgement of benefit/debt, may in fact care for both beneficiary's and benefactor's face."
"This supports Apte's description of thanking (verbalization of gratitude) in Marathi and Hindi, that is "verbalization of gratitude indicates a distant relationship" (Apte, 1974:75), and thus it should be avoided among family members."
sociolinguistic competence in the complimenting act of native chinese and american english speakers: a mirror of cultural value
ming-chung yu
"The present study examines sociolinguistic features of a particular speech act, paying compliments, by comparing and contrasting native CHinese and native American speakers' performances...this apper aims at illuminating the fact that, in cross-cultural communication, foreign langauge speakers have to pay close attention to sociolinguistic rules of the target language in addition to structure and discourse rules to meet the needs of linguistic accuracy and fluency."
"Complimenting is chosen in that this speech act, while seemingly common and simple at first glance, is often considered so complex as to cause a great deal of troble in intercultural encounters (e.g., Wolfson, 1989)."
"The issue of universality versus culture-speciicity in speech act studies is still hotly debated."
"It has been argued that the main function of compliments is to establish solidarity between speaker and addressee (e.g., Herbert, 1989;...)"
"...people frequently offer praise to reinforce or encourage the desired behavior in specific situations, such as teaching and learning. Another possible function compliments may serve is to strengthen or replace other speech acts like aplogizing, greeting, reprimanding, or thanking, or to soften acts such as criticism, or even to serve as acts like sarcasm or a conversation opener 9Wolfson, 1983, pp. 86-93)."
"American compliments serve to negotiate social solidarity, South African praise functions non-negotiatively, probably as a way to affirm such solidarity." (Herbert and Stright, 1989)
"complimenting can also be seen as...action that attends to the addressee's positive face by including him or her in the group...complimenting itself can also be deemed as a face-threatening act." both "positive politness device as well as face-threatening act"
"each field worker was asked to note as soon and as accurately as possible the exact compliment exchange and relevant contextual information he or she observed in his or her everyday life right after each exchange had taken place."
"two-year data collecting period" "audio-tape the observed spoken exchanges."
"In the Chinese data, 356 participants produced 410 compliments, while in the Americna ENglish data, 636 participants produced 789 compliments."
"Direct compliments, which refers to remarks including linguistic forms that dircetly and unambiguously frame these comments as compliments, such as, "Isn't the food great!"
"Indirect compliments, which refers to remarks which would be seen as compliments by the addressee, althought he positive semantic carrier generally assoicated with complimenting is missing at the level of the linguistic form...."Wow, I hope I'll have a coat like this.""
"(a) that complimenting frequency is much lower for CHinese speakers than for English speakers, (b) that direct complimenting was the most often adopted strategy for both speaker groups, and (c) that CHinese speakers used indirect compliments proportionately more than Americans did."
Direct: CHinese: 334. American: 719
Indirect: CHinese: 76. 18.5% Americans: 70 8.9%
"there were more Chinese speakers than expected who complimented indircetly, and fewer American English speakers who did so."
"there seem to be conceptual differences of directness/indirectmess between Chinese and English speakers."
"many Chinese speakers believe that the Chinese tend to consider these strategies equally direct when presented as single utterances."
Chinese compliments: "You must have put a lot of thought into it. That's a very clever idea." To Yuanyuan, the first part seems indirect and the second part seems direct. "You smell great. What kind of perfume are you wearing?" small talk and compliments overlap. The second sentence of the 2nd example here, "when ocurring on its own, can be considered a core compliment."
"...for native CHinese speakers, supportive moves and/or small talk are likely to be found before the core request in seemingly high imposition situations, whereas for American English speakers, they usually occur after the core request (Yu 1999b)."
Chinese: "Hi, I stood in line right behind you, so I got a chance to see you play. Do you often come here? Maybe we cna practice together some day. I think you play pretty well." long
American: "Nice shot! Wanna play together sometime?" short
"whereas the complimenting utterances of Americans were mostly so straightforward that few supportive moves or little small talk were used, Chinese speakers employed such moves or talk much more frequently so that many of their complimenting sequences tended to be longer, as we can see above in Examples (9) and (10). In practice, native CHinese speakers' use of small talk and/or supportive moves has to do with a socio-cultural convention that embraces a communicative style valuing reciprocal face work very highly."
"the use of linguistic devices that serve functions like supportive moves or small talk plays a very important role in CHinese politeness behavior and face concerns."
"compliments have been found to occur in a much wider variety of speech situations in AMerican culture than in other cultures (e.g. Wolfson, 1989."
this is unusual for the Chinese; they usually won't say this to a stranger: "Hi, we were just sitting near each other. By the way, I think you look great in this dress."
B: "So so!" A normal response
A: Do you come here often? How do you like the food here?"
B: Just so so!
A: Maybe we can get together again."
B: We'll see. I've been very busy recently. We'll probably meet again at school." this means I don't want to see you again. An exmaple that complimenting a stranger doesn't work with the CHinese
"In these two exchanges, compliments appear to function primarily as a conversation opener for the speaker to try to establish some rapport with the addressee."
"Not only is this behavior generally considered inappropriate, but also the addressee may think that the speaker is in effect contriving something."
"Given that the Chinese tend to offer fewer compliments in everyday discoursal activities than Americans, the question arises whether the Chinese have less of a need to establish solidarity than native ENglish speakers."
American-democratic
South AFrican-elitist
"...comliments in American culture function primarily as a vehicle to negotiate solidarity between speaker and hearer, wheeas compliments in South Afrucan society serve mainly as an instrument to show the speaker's admiration."
"Oliver (1971) argued that Chinese society traditionally legitimizes a hierarchical class structure that places a high value on subordination to and respect for authorities."
"
Therefore, compliments in CHinese culture, like those in South African society, may be primarily used to display the speaker's positive assessment of some object or concern relevant to the addressee instead of offering solidarity." Compliemts in South African and CHinese cultures "may serve a more restricted set of functions and are thus more limited in discourse."
"cultural norms play an important role in determining language behavior."
"In Chinese culture, the speaker is generally expected to employ compliments as assertions of admiration."
"In American culture, however, it is common practice for the speaker to employ compliments to establish solidarity or rapport."
"...compliments could also serve to replace other speech acts such as aplogizing, greeting, or thanking, and so forth, and both speaker groups employed compliments this way."
"compliments in AMericna ENglish mostly fall into two main categories: (a) appearance and/or possessions; and (b) ability and/or performance."
"The Chinese speakers' tendency to compliment on ability and/or performance can be accounted for by the fact that the Chinese traditionally tend to emphasize the virtues and qualities of individuals, and thus do not regard good looks or possessions as having great social value (Yang, 1987)."
"First...the act of explicitly admiring a person's appearance and/or possessions will usually be regarded as uncultivated...Second, physicla appearnce in Chinese socio-cultural contexts traidtionally has a sexual implication, and is, therefore, seen as taboo in social intercation.
"...newness is very highly valued in American society. Thus, offering a compliment is appropriate whenever an acquaintance is seen with something new (Wolfson, 1989)."
Recipient is higher in status: Chinese: 4.9%. American 15%
"For both speaker groups, the great majority of compliments occur in interactions between people of equal status."
"...Chinese socio-cultural convention...legitimizes a vertical class structure following Confucian political philosophy that places special emphasis on respect for and subordination to the authorities."
..."in American culture...the asymmetric power relations in conversational dyads are often not recognized."
"...where status is concerned, there were more compliments downwards than upwards for Chinese speakers, whereas there were more compliments upwards than downwards for Chinese speakers."
"for both speech groups, the great majority of compliments occur in interactions between interlocutors who are casual friends, co-workers, non-intimates, and acquaintances rather than intimates or total strangers."
In CHinese culture, complimenting a close friend or intimate is considered distancing.
Recipient is a close friend or intimate: Chinese 7.8% American 16.4%
"social distance appears to be seen as an easily surmountable boundary to everyday interactions in American culture, while in CHinese culture, a vertical social class structure is still observed."
"this Chinese word, due to its stronger semantic force, is employed in indirect requesting more often than in complimenting; in contrast, "like" in ENglish, due to its stronger complimentary force, is used in complimenting much more frequently than in requesting."
"The present study examines sociolinguistic features of a particular speech act, paying compliments, by comparing and contrasting native CHinese and native American speakers' performances...this apper aims at illuminating the fact that, in cross-cultural communication, foreign langauge speakers have to pay close attention to sociolinguistic rules of the target language in addition to structure and discourse rules to meet the needs of linguistic accuracy and fluency."
"Complimenting is chosen in that this speech act, while seemingly common and simple at first glance, is often considered so complex as to cause a great deal of troble in intercultural encounters (e.g., Wolfson, 1989)."
"The issue of universality versus culture-speciicity in speech act studies is still hotly debated."
"It has been argued that the main function of compliments is to establish solidarity between speaker and addressee (e.g., Herbert, 1989;...)"
"...people frequently offer praise to reinforce or encourage the desired behavior in specific situations, such as teaching and learning. Another possible function compliments may serve is to strengthen or replace other speech acts like aplogizing, greeting, reprimanding, or thanking, or to soften acts such as criticism, or even to serve as acts like sarcasm or a conversation opener 9Wolfson, 1983, pp. 86-93)."
"American compliments serve to negotiate social solidarity, South African praise functions non-negotiatively, probably as a way to affirm such solidarity." (Herbert and Stright, 1989)
"complimenting can also be seen as...action that attends to the addressee's positive face by including him or her in the group...complimenting itself can also be deemed as a face-threatening act." both "positive politness device as well as face-threatening act"
"each field worker was asked to note as soon and as accurately as possible the exact compliment exchange and relevant contextual information he or she observed in his or her everyday life right after each exchange had taken place."
"two-year data collecting period" "audio-tape the observed spoken exchanges."
"In the Chinese data, 356 participants produced 410 compliments, while in the Americna ENglish data, 636 participants produced 789 compliments."
"Direct compliments, which refers to remarks including linguistic forms that dircetly and unambiguously frame these comments as compliments, such as, "Isn't the food great!"
"Indirect compliments, which refers to remarks which would be seen as compliments by the addressee, althought he positive semantic carrier generally assoicated with complimenting is missing at the level of the linguistic form...."Wow, I hope I'll have a coat like this.""
"(a) that complimenting frequency is much lower for CHinese speakers than for English speakers, (b) that direct complimenting was the most often adopted strategy for both speaker groups, and (c) that CHinese speakers used indirect compliments proportionately more than Americans did."
Direct: CHinese: 334. American: 719
Indirect: CHinese: 76. 18.5% Americans: 70 8.9%
"there were more Chinese speakers than expected who complimented indircetly, and fewer American English speakers who did so."
"there seem to be conceptual differences of directness/indirectmess between Chinese and English speakers."
"many Chinese speakers believe that the Chinese tend to consider these strategies equally direct when presented as single utterances."
Chinese compliments: "You must have put a lot of thought into it. That's a very clever idea." To Yuanyuan, the first part seems indirect and the second part seems direct. "You smell great. What kind of perfume are you wearing?" small talk and compliments overlap. The second sentence of the 2nd example here, "when ocurring on its own, can be considered a core compliment."
"...for native CHinese speakers, supportive moves and/or small talk are likely to be found before the core request in seemingly high imposition situations, whereas for American English speakers, they usually occur after the core request (Yu 1999b)."
Chinese: "Hi, I stood in line right behind you, so I got a chance to see you play. Do you often come here? Maybe we cna practice together some day. I think you play pretty well." long
American: "Nice shot! Wanna play together sometime?" short
"whereas the complimenting utterances of Americans were mostly so straightforward that few supportive moves or little small talk were used, Chinese speakers employed such moves or talk much more frequently so that many of their complimenting sequences tended to be longer, as we can see above in Examples (9) and (10). In practice, native CHinese speakers' use of small talk and/or supportive moves has to do with a socio-cultural convention that embraces a communicative style valuing reciprocal face work very highly."
"the use of linguistic devices that serve functions like supportive moves or small talk plays a very important role in CHinese politeness behavior and face concerns."
"compliments have been found to occur in a much wider variety of speech situations in AMerican culture than in other cultures (e.g. Wolfson, 1989."
this is unusual for the Chinese; they usually won't say this to a stranger: "Hi, we were just sitting near each other. By the way, I think you look great in this dress."
B: "So so!" A normal response
A: Do you come here often? How do you like the food here?"
B: Just so so!
A: Maybe we can get together again."
B: We'll see. I've been very busy recently. We'll probably meet again at school." this means I don't want to see you again. An exmaple that complimenting a stranger doesn't work with the CHinese
"In these two exchanges, compliments appear to function primarily as a conversation opener for the speaker to try to establish some rapport with the addressee."
"Not only is this behavior generally considered inappropriate, but also the addressee may think that the speaker is in effect contriving something."
"Given that the Chinese tend to offer fewer compliments in everyday discoursal activities than Americans, the question arises whether the Chinese have less of a need to establish solidarity than native ENglish speakers."
American-democratic
South AFrican-elitist
"...comliments in American culture function primarily as a vehicle to negotiate solidarity between speaker and hearer, wheeas compliments in South Afrucan society serve mainly as an instrument to show the speaker's admiration."
"Oliver (1971) argued that Chinese society traditionally legitimizes a hierarchical class structure that places a high value on subordination to and respect for authorities."
"
Therefore, compliments in CHinese culture, like those in South African society, may be primarily used to display the speaker's positive assessment of some object or concern relevant to the addressee instead of offering solidarity." Compliemts in South African and CHinese cultures "may serve a more restricted set of functions and are thus more limited in discourse."
"cultural norms play an important role in determining language behavior."
"In Chinese culture, the speaker is generally expected to employ compliments as assertions of admiration."
"In American culture, however, it is common practice for the speaker to employ compliments to establish solidarity or rapport."
"...compliments could also serve to replace other speech acts such as aplogizing, greeting, or thanking, and so forth, and both speaker groups employed compliments this way."
"compliments in AMericna ENglish mostly fall into two main categories: (a) appearance and/or possessions; and (b) ability and/or performance."
"The Chinese speakers' tendency to compliment on ability and/or performance can be accounted for by the fact that the Chinese traditionally tend to emphasize the virtues and qualities of individuals, and thus do not regard good looks or possessions as having great social value (Yang, 1987)."
"First...the act of explicitly admiring a person's appearance and/or possessions will usually be regarded as uncultivated...Second, physicla appearnce in Chinese socio-cultural contexts traidtionally has a sexual implication, and is, therefore, seen as taboo in social intercation.
"...newness is very highly valued in American society. Thus, offering a compliment is appropriate whenever an acquaintance is seen with something new (Wolfson, 1989)."
Recipient is higher in status: Chinese: 4.9%. American 15%
"For both speaker groups, the great majority of compliments occur in interactions between people of equal status."
"...Chinese socio-cultural convention...legitimizes a vertical class structure following Confucian political philosophy that places special emphasis on respect for and subordination to the authorities."
..."in American culture...the asymmetric power relations in conversational dyads are often not recognized."
"...where status is concerned, there were more compliments downwards than upwards for Chinese speakers, whereas there were more compliments upwards than downwards for Chinese speakers."
"for both speech groups, the great majority of compliments occur in interactions between interlocutors who are casual friends, co-workers, non-intimates, and acquaintances rather than intimates or total strangers."
In CHinese culture, complimenting a close friend or intimate is considered distancing.
Recipient is a close friend or intimate: Chinese 7.8% American 16.4%
"social distance appears to be seen as an easily surmountable boundary to everyday interactions in American culture, while in CHinese culture, a vertical social class structure is still observed."
"this Chinese word, due to its stronger semantic force, is employed in indirect requesting more often than in complimenting; in contrast, "like" in ENglish, due to its stronger complimentary force, is used in complimenting much more frequently than in requesting."
politeness ideology in Spanish colloquial conversation: the case of advice
nieves hernandez-flores
"...politeness is based on a social ideology, i.e. on a set of ideas about behaviour which are shared by a community...the members of this community have to follow the rules in order to continue their membership in the group."
"the social ideology arising in European SPanish colloquial conversation."
autonomy: "the fact of perceiving, and to be perceived by people, as someone with his/her own surroundings inside the group."
affiliation: "the fact of perceiving, and to be perceived by people, as an integrated part of the group."
"what the categories of autonomy and affiliation aim at in terms of behaviour is open to cultural interpretation."
in Spanish groups:
self-affirmation: (Thuren 1988): "It is important to express your opinions forcefully and persuasively; one should be able to persuade through showing the invinsible structure and logic of one's opinions and also demonstrating their emotional charge, because what is emotionally strong carries its own logic."
confianza: (Thuren) "closeness or a sense of deep familiarity"
"the face want of self-affirmation (the desire to be seen by others as someone with good social qualities) does not refer to the fact of being or not being unimpeded in one's actions, as negative face does, but to the wish of standing out form the group...With regard to confianze (sense of deep familiarity), this notion does not refer to the wish of being appreciated and approved of (positive face) but to the wish of achieving closeness..."
"advice would be understood as a speaker's imposition on the hearer's freedom of decision and action."
note 8: "Also in American English, by using Brown and Levinson's features for face, Decapua and Huber display that unsolicited advice shows people's enagagement in related stories or descriptions arising in daily conversation and this is not seen as a threat in many situations...advice has other functions...to establish or maintain rapport."
"she plays down her task by using a diminutive in the adjective (tranquilita)"
"advice arises without a demand deom th addressee, it presents clear assertions and it is rejected by the hearer."
"...politeness is based on a social ideology, i.e. on a set of ideas about behaviour which are shared by a community...the members of this community have to follow the rules in order to continue their membership in the group."
"the social ideology arising in European SPanish colloquial conversation."
autonomy: "the fact of perceiving, and to be perceived by people, as someone with his/her own surroundings inside the group."
affiliation: "the fact of perceiving, and to be perceived by people, as an integrated part of the group."
"what the categories of autonomy and affiliation aim at in terms of behaviour is open to cultural interpretation."
in Spanish groups:
self-affirmation: (Thuren 1988): "It is important to express your opinions forcefully and persuasively; one should be able to persuade through showing the invinsible structure and logic of one's opinions and also demonstrating their emotional charge, because what is emotionally strong carries its own logic."
confianza: (Thuren) "closeness or a sense of deep familiarity"
"the face want of self-affirmation (the desire to be seen by others as someone with good social qualities) does not refer to the fact of being or not being unimpeded in one's actions, as negative face does, but to the wish of standing out form the group...With regard to confianze (sense of deep familiarity), this notion does not refer to the wish of being appreciated and approved of (positive face) but to the wish of achieving closeness..."
"advice would be understood as a speaker's imposition on the hearer's freedom of decision and action."
note 8: "Also in American English, by using Brown and Levinson's features for face, Decapua and Huber display that unsolicited advice shows people's enagagement in related stories or descriptions arising in daily conversation and this is not seen as a threat in many situations...advice has other functions...to establish or maintain rapport."
"she plays down her task by using a diminutive in the adjective (tranquilita)"
"advice arises without a demand deom th addressee, it presents clear assertions and it is rejected by the hearer."
Monday, May 25, 2009
a cross-cultural comparison of apologies by native speakers of American English and jordanian arabic
rula fahmi bataineh, ruba fahmi bataineh
"This study investigates the apology strategies used by the speakers of American English and Jordanian Arabic...there were more differences between Jordanian male and female resondents than between American male and female respondents, which may be attributed to the fact that there is a greater similarity between how boys and girls are raised in the US than between how they are raised in Jordan."
apologies
survey taken by undergraduates
"Westerners concentrate more on culpability and Easterners on consequences."
"only Jordanians used strategies such as praising God for what happened, attacking the victim, minimizing the degree of offense, and interjection."
Strategies differed, but not that much.
"This study investigates the apology strategies used by the speakers of American English and Jordanian Arabic...there were more differences between Jordanian male and female resondents than between American male and female respondents, which may be attributed to the fact that there is a greater similarity between how boys and girls are raised in the US than between how they are raised in Jordan."
apologies
survey taken by undergraduates
"Westerners concentrate more on culpability and Easterners on consequences."
"only Jordanians used strategies such as praising God for what happened, attacking the victim, minimizing the degree of offense, and interjection."
Strategies differed, but not that much.
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